O’Halloran edges toward Canada dream

EDMUND O’HALLORAN (St Francis College, Rochestown) wants to join his Leevale clubmate, Patrick Maher, at the world junior championships in Canada and yesterday he took another step towards fulfiling his ambition when he got his schools campaign off to a flyer with an emphatic victory in the 110m hurdles at the South Munster Schools championships at the Cork IT Track in Bishopstown.

It was on the same track that Patrick Maher, who will represent Davis College in the schools championships, set a new Irish junior record for the 400m hurdles at 52.14 secs to qualify for the world juniors a few weeks earlier.

Not so long ago, himself and O’Halloran were battling it out in the sprint hurdles.

O’Halloran’s 14.9 secs yesterday was short of the 14.25 secs he will have to run to qualify for the world junior championships but it was a step in the right direction and he will have plenty of opportunity to improve over the coming weeks, having qualified for the Munster schools championships in two weeks which will be followed by the Irish schools championships in Tullamore on the June Bank Holiday weekend.

“I hope to get to the junior meeting in Mannheim after that,” he said. “That is a very good meeting and the competition there is excellent. I am confident I can achieve the time.”

He is coached by national sprints coach, John Sheehan, and former international high hurdler, Seamus Power, the combination that coached Derval O’Rourke.

Dean Cronin (Colaiste an Phiarsaigh, Glanmire) achieved the qualifying standard for last year’s European Youth Olympics but failed to get the nod for Finland when another athlete bettered his time. Now he has qualification for this year’s World Youth Olympics in Singapore on his mind as he embarks on his schools campaign. He was an impressive winner of the 800m on the first day of the South Munster championships and will be chasing the 1:53 standard over the coming weeks.

Last year, as a 15-year-old, he added a 52 sec 400m to his 1:55 800m.

Since then he has represented the Irish schools on both track and cross-country and, earlier this year, he won the national junior indoor 800m title.

Danny Mullins from Bantry has put a busy five days behind him. Last Sunday he won the under-18 steeplechase at the county juvenile championships and then he turned out on Monday to win the Munster junior steeplechase title.

Yesterday he was an impressive winner of the intermediate 3,000m at the CIT track and is set to double up over 3,000m and the steeplechase for the remainder of the schools campaign. Last year he was fourth in the 1,500m at the Irish schools championships in Tullamore.

Diarmuid Hickey (Carrigaline CS) was another busy athlete this week.

On Sunday he won the 100m and finished second in the javelin at the county juvenile championships while yesterday he threw the shot 13.84m – just three centimetres off his best – to win that event.

Last year he won bronze medals in both the shot and discus at the Irish schools championships and yesterday he finished third to Shane McAuliffe (Colaiste Treasa, Kanturk) who threw the discus 33.86m to win that event from his schoolmate, Michael O’Neill, 29.95.

Hickey, who is concentrating on the shot putt this year, threw 29.67m for third place.

The Neville twins from Mount Mercy College, Jessica and Christine, fought out a close one-two in the girls’ 800m, Jessica winning in 2:22.2 from Christine, a schools international last year, who was second in 2:24.8,

The most exciting finish of the day was the intermediate girls’ 3,000m as Brigid Dennehy (Coláiste na Sceilge) and Blaithin Lynch (St Mary’s, Midleton) battled shoulder to shoulder all the way before Dennehy edged clear in the home straight to win in 11:29.00, with Lynch second in 11:30.4.

The championships continue at the same venue next Wednesday (1.30pm) while the Munster schools championships will be held there on May 22.